Davao, Philippines – Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte vowed Sunday to reintroduce capital punishment and give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders in a devastating war on crime.

In his first press conference since winning the May 9 elections in a landslide, the tough-talking mayor of southern Davao city warned his campaign threats to kill were not rhetoric.

“What I will do is urge Congress to restore (the) death penalty by hanging,” Duterte, 71, told a press conference in Davao.

He also said he would give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders against organised criminals or those who violently resisted arrest.

“If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police (will be) to shoot to kill. Shoot to kill for organised crime. You heard that? Shoot to kill for every organised crime,” he said.

He said military sharp shooters would be enlisted in his campaign to kill criminals.

Duterte also vowed to introduce a 2:00am curfew on drinking in public places, and ban children from walking on the streets alone late at night.

If children were picked up on the streets, their parents would be arrested and thrown into jail for “abandonment”, Duterte said.

Duterte said he wanted capital punishment – which was abolished in 2006 under then-president Gloria Arroyo – to be reintroduced for a wide range of crimes, particularly drugs, but also rape, murder and robbery.

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He added he preferred death by hanging to a firing squad because he did not want to waste bullets, and because he believed snapping the spine with a noose was more humane.

The centrepiece of Duterte’s stunningly successful election campaign strategy was a pledge to end crime within three to six months of being elected.

Duterte vowed during the campaign to kill tens of thousands criminals, outraging his critics but hypnotising tens of millions of Filipinos fed up with rampant crime and graft.

On one occasion he said 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

He complained on Sunday that people no longer feared the law, and he would change that.

“We have a society now where obedience to the law is really a choice, an option only,” he said.

“Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. I will kill you. No middle ground. As long as the requirements of the law are there, if you try to evade arrest, refuse arrest… and you put up a good fight or resist violently, I will say: ‘Kill them’.” Duterte is due to be sworn into office on June 30 for a six-year term.

The current president, Benigno Aquino, warned repeatedly during the campaign that Duterte was a dictator in the making and would bring terror to the nation.

However his preferred successor, Mar Roxas, an establishment politician who promised to continue Aquino’s slow but steady macroeconomic reforms, ended in a distant second place.

Duterte has been accused of running vigilant death squads during his more than two decades as mayor of Davao, a city of about two million people that he says he has turned into one of the nations safest.

Rights groups say the squads – made up of police, hired assassins and ex-communist rebels – have killed more than 1,000 people.

They say children and petty criminals were among the victims.

Duterte boasted on one occasion during the campaign of being behind the squads, saying they killed 1,700 people. But other times he denied any involvement.

Duterte also made international headlines for constant use of vulgar language, including on one occasion branding the pope a “son of a whore”.

After scorching criticism in the mainly Catholic nation, Duterte sent a letter of apology to Pope Francis.

He also said he would visit the Vatican to make a personal apology, but on Sunday reneged on that pledge.

“No more. That’s enough,” Duterte said when asked about the planned trip, pointing out he had already sent the letter.

He said the trip “could be an exercise in duplicity”, as he complained that some Church leaders in the Philippines indicated he may not have been forgiven.

Duterte was raised a Catholic.

But among his closest advisers is Apollo Quiboloy, leader of the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group who calls himself “the Appointed Son of God”.

Kathmandu – Hundreds of members of Nepal’s ethnic minorities blocked roads in the capital on Sunday in renewed protests calling for changes to the Himalayan nation’s controversial new constitution.

Demonstrators carrying flags and chanting slogans pushed up against a police cordon in Kathmandu’s administrative centre in protests against the charter, which they say leaves them politically marginalised.

“The government is not serious about our demands and is moving forward independently, even reversing the agreements we have reached in the past,” said Upendra Yadav, chairman of a regional party representing the Madhesi community.

No injuries were reported in the protests, which restarted in the capital on Sunday in a fresh push to amend the constitution adopted last September.

More than 50 people were killed in previous clashes between police and opponents of the charter.

Madhesi demonstrators also blocked a major cross-border trade route, sparking a national shortage of fuel and other supplies from neighbouring India. The crisis was only resolved in February.

“We want equality for all ethnic groups in Nepal but the government is not listening to us. That is why we are here,” said 35-year-old Somati Tharu, who travelled to Kathmandu from southern Nepal to join the protests.

The constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal’s transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency which ended in 2006.

But several rounds of talks between the government and the protesting parties have failed to secure agreement.

In an attempt to resolve the issue, parliament in January amended the constitution to increase the presence of marginalised communities in government bodies.

But protesters say the amendments do not address their main demand – changes to internal state borders laid out in the constitution. They say the current borders limit their representation in parliament.

Indonesia will stop locals from going abroad to work as domestic maids starting the end of this month, followed by a complete shutdown on the supply next year, by order of President Joko Widodo, local newspapers reported.

“Those who already have suitable employers abroad, who pay good salaries and provide amenities, can continue to stay on,” Soes Hindarno, director of placement and protection of overseas workers under the Ministry of Manpower, told the media last week.

“Indonesian embassies can still process job renewal if it is a good employer-employee match,” the Tempo newspaper quoted Mr Hindarno as saying in Bandung, West Java, where he was attending an official event.

“But there will be no more newcomers from Indonesia by 2017,” he added.

The target, the director pointed out, is for all local workers abroad to be true professionals working in companies by 2018, with no more as maids in households.

The cut-off of the maid supply will first be applied in the Middle East, followed by Asia-Pacific in 2017, including Hong Kong, the Suara Merdeka online portal reported Mr Hindarno as saying.

His ministry estimates that there are seven million Indonesians working abroad, with 60 per cent of them domestic helpers.

“Domestic workers still contribute a lot of problems. The market opportunities are wide so why are we relying on this low sector?” asked Mr Hindarno.

Sunarno, inspector general of the Manpower Ministry, said the government has set up a programme to expand employment opportunities at home to make up for the closing of the overseas maid sector.

West Java governor Ahmad Heryawan told Tempo that his government supports the move to ban sending locals to work overseas, in particular to the Middle East, where they enjoy no human rights protection.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced that President Joko will fix the problem of domestic maids working abroad being subject to indignities and human rights abuses.

The Migrant Care non-government organisation recently declared its findings that the memoranda of understanding (MoU) between Jakarta and several countries on the employment of Indonesian maids do not contain human rights provisions.

One example is the MoU with the Malaysian government signed in 2006 which does not state the maximum working hours, the minimum age of maids and their rights, including the freedom to join a union, said Anis Hidayah, director of Migrant Care.

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